Ambassador Morgenthau's Story

AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY

Ambassador Morgenthau's Story is the title of the published memoirs of Henry Morgenthau Snr covering the time when he was American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913-1916. The book has been used as a primary source regarding Turkish atrocities against Ottoman Christians.

As Ottoman authorities began exterminating Armenians in 1914-1915, Morgenthau's desk was flooded with reports nearly every hour by the American consuls residing in different parts of the Empire documenting the massacres and deportations that were taking place. Along with the extermination of the Armenians, Morgenthau's memoir also details massacres and deportations committed on native Greeks and Assyrians of the empire. Faced with the accumulating evidence, he officially informed the U.S. government of the activities of the Ottoman government and asked for it to intervene.

The American government however, not wanting to get dragged in, remained a neutral power in the conflict at the time and voiced little official reaction. Morgenthau held high-level meetings with the leaders of the Ottoman Empire to help alleviate the position of the Armenians but his protestations were waived and ignored. He famously admonished the country's Interior Minister Talaat Pasha, stating that "Our people will never forget these massacres."